


ttyl

by SoftyDeluxe



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Autism, Child Abuse, Coming of Age, Differing Writing Styles Depending on POV, Drug Use, Friendship, Intertwining Storylines, Non-binary character, Not-So-Great Role Models, POV Switches Every Chapter, Service Pokémon, Texting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2018-12-05 22:55:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11587869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoftyDeluxe/pseuds/SoftyDeluxe
Summary: An autistic pokemon trainer beats the elite four out of sheer fucking spite (and also maybe boredom). Meanwhile, her snarky nonbinary pen-pal buddy from Alola accidentally gets drafted into Team Skull.





	1. Eli: hot

**Author's Note:**

> howdy!  
> so this is something i'll be working on for a while. i don't have an update schedule or anything, it'll just get updated when it gets updated. it's more of a personal project than something I think other people will read, but if there's someone out there who likes this, i guess this is for you, too!  
> anyway, this story follows two kids who live in different regions of the world, and because of that, this chapter will focus on one of them, and the next chapter will focus on the other. then there will probably be a text log or something, because that's their primary form of communication. lots of convos between these two are sure to follow, lmao.  
> so yeah, i hope you enjoy this :) (SORRY ITS SO SHORT LOL)

It was hot as hell.

I mean, what else is new, but the heatwave was just heinous. You walk outside and it’s just awful. It was like walking into a bowl of soup. It was enough to make a magcargo uncomfortable. Or, at least, that’s how it felt to Eli. He hasn’t even gotten his lazy ass out of bed yet and he felt like he was going to sweat to death. And it probably didn’t help that his lycanroc laid across his legs, almost trapping him underneath the covers. Instead of rolling off his mattress and actually starting the day (you know, like a productive human being would?), he opted to just lay there and let the sun peeking through his blinds roast him.

He’d lived in the Alola region his whole life - was born here right after his mom moved, but it never got any easier when it came to the heat. He kind of blamed his mom for it. She was the one who hauled out here after winning that stupid lottery. “Congratulations! You’ve won a beach house in sunny Alola!” You could get the same experience living in an active volcano.

Alright, maybe Eli shouldn’t complain as much as he does. Like, things could be worse. He could be stuck out in Unova like Salem was. Honestly, Eli didn’t see the problem Salem had with Unova at first. He thought it’d be nice getting to live out in the big city, everything all close together like that. He imagined it never got boring. But Salem made it out to be some kind of chaotic hellscape where everything was awful, constantly and forever, no exceptions. Eli knew that she’d had a tendency to exaggerate, but she made a particularly big deal about this.

Oh, shit. Speaking of Salem...

Eli rolled over on his bed and reached out for his phone that had been resting on the bedside table. He forgot to plug it in to charge overnight, but that wasn’t a problem. He had nowhere to go out today. As soon as he turned it on, he saw there hadn’t been any recent activity. No new messages.

Perfect.

He opened his messenger app and pulled up Salem’s contact, starting to type.

‘mornin punk’


	2. Salem: Awake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> salem's first chapter! 90% exposition wHOOPS  
> (also new york is six hours ahead of hawaii lol)

Salem woke up to the sound of her phone going off.

The soft chime tone that came from the speaker meant that it must have been from either her mother or Eli, and seeing as how her mother was still in the apartment, she assumed it was the latter.

She found herself sitting cross-legged on the floor, head lowered with her back pressed up against the wall, tucked into a spot between her bed and the side of her desk. Her phone was resting in her lap, still cradled in her limp hand. She must have fallen asleep while on it.

Marnie, her mother’s absol, lay up on her bed, head and front paws almost hanging off the edge. Upon Salem raising her head and opening her eyes that were still heavy with sleep, the absol opened her eyes to look at her.

Marnie joined the family not too terribly long after Salem turned six. Once her mother had learned that Salem was autistic, the doctor recommended getting a service pokemon to help with the symptoms that came with autism. Absol was a very common service pokemon, as they used their ability to predict disasters to predict when people’s health issues would flare up. In Salem’s case, Marnie predicted things like meltdowns and sensory overloads, and it helped Salem immensely, especially after the move from Oreburgh to Black City.

Salem’s mother had been getting job offers from Unova for a few months - a promising company position in a bustling city. She knew it would make money, but she also knew how Salem would react. The two of them sat and talked about it for weeks, debating. Salem was as stubborn as a bouffalnt, as was expected. She had never known anything outside of Oreburgh except what she had seen on the TV. She knew people here who liked her. The chaos and clutter and spontaneous decisions that dictated the lives of others who lived in the city made Salem nervous. How could people live like that, with all the noise and lack of space? Even in Oreburgh, things weren’t perfect. But Salem was convinced they would be worse elsewhere.

After a while, she came to realize she never had a say in the decision at all, but her mother wanted her to think she did. Her mother had made the choice to move long before she had brought it up with Salem, but wanted to prepare her for the move anyways, hence the faux debate. Salem never really had a choice. The promise of a better life and a steady source of income outweighed the sense of normality for the both of them.

The constant faded rumble of overworked machinery coupled with the occasional smell of wet earth in Oreburgh would always be her home. The energy that flowed through there was true to the town’s slogan. It was ever present and powerful.

Salem took the time to rub her eyes and wake up a little before hearing the phone chime again, reminding her she had an unread message.

She picked it up and saw Eli's contact, opening the messenger with haste. They held a sort of competition over who would text the other first. It was embarrassing for Salem to lose, especially considering Unova is six hours ahead of Alola. She tapped out her response and sent the message on it's way.

'Hullo'


	3. Chat 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ALKSHDL HEY I'M BACK sorry i don't write enough lol... still definetly working on stuff but god i will never be consistent with updates so don't let this be something you check on every day. anyway here's a chapter of texting between the two protags. love u.  
> EDIT: fixed the spacing of the texts for readability!!!!!!

E: listen i found that drink you wanted me to try yesterday

S: The donut one?

E: yea

S: How was it?

E: salem i cannot stress to you enough how much i wanted to die upon consumption of that Hell Beverage™

S: NOOOO

E: YEAAAAAA

E: look i didn’t expect a soda to taste like an actual literal whole entire donut

E: condensed in a can

E: in carbonated liquid form

S: What are you gonna do when you get old enough to drink alchohol and it all tastes like cotton candy and carrot cake???

E: EUGHCK IS THAT REALLT WHAT IT TASTES LIKE

E: really**

S: I wouldn’t know, I’m five years old.

E: salem you are 16 gregorian years old

E: that’s old enough to drive a car

S: hhhh

E: i thought? you liked driving???

S: I do but i don’t like alcohol.

E: oh well yeah i don’t either.

S: Please don’t make me drink it

E: bitch i am… l i g h t y e a r s away from you. i can’t make you do anything

S: Lmao guess I’ll set my house on fire

E: DONT BITCH

E: YOU LIVE IN AN APARTMEANT

S: B)

E: at least take me with you

S: Oh yeah speaking of which, guess what I’m getting you for your birthday

E: wHAT DO YOU MEAN SPEAKING OF WHICH

E: are you hiring a hitman to finally end my slutty, slutty life

S: ;)

S: (No but that's the joke I was referencing)

E: unfortunate

E: what’d you get me

S: uwu

E: salem i am flying to unova right the fuck now to kill you with my bare hands

S: OWO!!!!!!

S: I’m getting you a fursuit

E: ALHDHJDK FUKC

S: Not really but you’ll find out eventually

E: by that do you mean i’ll find out ewhen you give it to me

E: you thot

S: Lol yeah

S: Suffer and perish

E: can it atleast be an oddish fursuit

E: OH MY GOD I JUST THOUGHT OF A GREAT JOKE

S: ?

E: OKOKOK…. what do you call it when an officer is chasing someone in a fursuit

S: Uh

E: the officer would be in…………….h o t f u r s u i t

S: Eli I want a divorce

E: U3U


	4. Eli: Letters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hey i found out why all these chapters are so short - its cuz in google docs i double space everything and that makes it easier to read AND it makes it look like i've written more than i actually have. whoops. anyway hope you like this :)

Eli’s face almost began to ache at how long he’d been grinning at his phone screen. That tended to happen when he talked to Salem. The two of them ‘met’ during a school project when they were in the third-ish grade. They had to make a pen pal from a different region. At the time, Salem lived in Sinnoh. Eli’s class had to send out letters to kids from a school far away, and they got to pick which school off of a list. Eli was last to pick, so he got the ‘special kids’ school. At first, he hated it, because he didn’t want to spend all that time writing a letter to someone he didn’t know or care about. He didn’t even know if kids in that school could read.

In the third-ish grade, Eli now realizes, he was an asshole.

Well, maybe not an asshole, because he was a little kid who didn’t know any better. He sent the letter out anyway, not really expecting a reply back. But he got one about a week later. It was a lot neater than his, because he wrote his really fast, and it was also really long. First, he had to write, and now he has to read?

But he found the person on the other end of the letters to be kinda funny. The way they talked about stuff was weird, but also relatable. He he told himself he’d only be writing back for the grade, but in all honesty he thought this Salem kid was kinda cool.

The two wrote back and forth for years after that. They told each other everything. Once they were old enough, they started emailing and texting, but it never held the same charm as a sloppy handwritten letter with stickers on the envelope. They still send each other letters occasionally, usually with a small package for the other just to show they care. Eli loved talking to Salem, and he hoped and prayed that she felt the same about him. I mean, she must, right? She takes the time to text him back almost immediately every time while he can take hours, and they text, like, every day, just like they were this morning.

Hell, Eli probably would have continued texting her, had it not been for his legs, which he was positive were melting.

“Hey, hey, fssst, Nicky.” Eli gently bounced his legs under the weight of Nicky. The red and white lycanroc picked his head up to look over at Eli, a slothful and slow motion. “Get off. You’re fat.”

That wasn’t true - he was actually fairly slim. But Eli was hot and his legs were turning to liquid. With a pained whine, Nicky rolled off the bed entirely and landed on the floor with a heavy thud.

From downstairs, Eli could hear his mom yell loudly, and he groaned. He could also hear Nicky growl along with him, which made him smile as he ripped the thin sheet off his body in a dramatic flare. He was glad Nicky felt the same way.


End file.
